Can You Upload Recommendation Letters to Colleges Common App
Hopefully, you have the perfect teachers in mind to ask for your letter of the alphabet of recommendation. Once you've asked these teachers, how do you really get their letters to your colleges?
This guide volition go over everything you need to know virtually submitting your recommendation letters, whether you're using the Common Application, a customized school application, and/or Naviance. To starting time, what are the options for submission?
What Are Your Options for Submitting Recommendation Letters?
Technically, in that location are two options for submission: online or by post. Note the use of "or"; colleges don't desire teachers to mix and match. In other words, schools don't want a single teacher to submit her ranking form online so send her alphabetic character by mail. If she's submitting online, then she should submit everything online. If past mail, so everything should get past mail. Generally speaking, nearly students reading this will have their recommenders submit their letters online.
Since you're already doing more than enough with the college awarding process, you might be relieved to hear that you don't really have to submit your messages! Your teachers and counselor are responsible for uploading the rec letters to whatsoever system you're using.
What you are responsible for, though, is inviting them. Make sure yous give them clear deadlines, send a reminder e-mail, and double check that your schools received their letters. Whichever way you're using to apply—the Mutual Application, Universal Application, school-specific app, and/or Naviance software—you'll assign your recommenders. The residual is upwards to them!
In rare cases, your recommender might prefer or demand to send her letter of the alphabet of recommendation by snail post. This may be the case if you're sending an extra supplemental recommendation, or if your school uses Naviance and you need to assign a recommender outside of your immediate school kinesthesia. This method is usually fine, though non preferred, by colleges—just notify your higher to expect the inflow of this document.
Equally you tin tell, there are various ways to employ, and, therefore, there are different ways to deliver your letters of recommendation to colleges. Let's consider how exactly your recommenders will submit in a few different scenarios.
How Do Your Recommenders Submit Their Letters Online?
Online rec letter submission is generally a straightforward process. First, y'all invite, or "assign," your recommenders. Then, your recommenders go an email prompting them to upload their letters.
The main question you demand to reply is what arrangement you're using to invite your recommenders, whether you're applying via an online school awarding, the Common App, Naviance, or a combination of all three. Let's wait at all these options, starting with school-specific applications.
Scenario one: Assign Recommenders Through Your School Application
In this scenario, yous're applying to school through its individual online application system. Schools in the University of Texas system, for example, use their own applications and don't participate in the Common App.
If your college allows or requires recommendation letters, then it will have a folio on which you tin can invite your recommenders. Typically y'all'll be asked to fill up in their commencement and last names, position (like English language Instructor), and email address.
The Academy of Texas application has its own "Certificate Upload System." If your college doesn't desire you to send recommendation messages, like University of California schools, and so y'all won't find this role on your application.
Some schoolhouse applications will likewise prompt you to respond to a question about FERPA. More often than not speaking, you should go ahead and waive your right to view recommendation messages, as they're expected to be confidential between letter writers and the admissions officers who read them.
All of the in a higher place instructions should work for the Common Awarding too. The just difference is that you'll probably take to assign recommenders for more than one college.
The majority of college applicants are high school seniors, and most of the college application advice out in that location is aimed at them. Just what do you exercise if yous don't fall into this narrow category? Our eBook on how to prepare for and apply to higher as a nontraditional educatee will walk y'all through everything you need to know, from the coursework you should have under your belt to how to get messages of recommendation when you're not a high school senior.
Scenario 2: Assign Recommenders Through the Mutual Application
Your first footstep in completing the recommendation letter requirement through the Common Application is signing your FERPA waiver. Once you lot sign this, y'all'll be able to invite recommenders.
Get-go, head to the "Colleges" tab. From there, you'll be able to assign recommenders by each private college on your list. Each school, by the way, customizes its own page. If your school requires two teacher recommendations, for example, then y'all'll see space to invite two teacher recommenders.
Many schools too permit yous to assign one or two "Other Recommenders." This infinite is for letters beyond the requirements. Before sending any supplemental messages, cheque to learn your colleges' stance: some colleges actively discourage the submission of extra materials.
Once you invite your recommenders, your teachers will receive emails prompting them to submit their messages. Your recommenders are responsible for uploading their recs by the stated deadlines. Conveniently, you'll see a status alter once your letters are uploaded (usually yellowish ways not still, and light-green means you're expert to go!).
While your letters will be fastened to your application, they won't actually become sent to your colleges until you hitting submit and pay the application fees (or utilize a fee waiver). That means that the final step of actually getting your letters to the admissions committee is ultimately in your hands.
While inviting your recommenders through your online applications is a simple process, it'southward not really how you'll transport your messages if your high school uses the e-docs delivery software, Naviance. Read on to learn how Naviance links up to your applications to collect required documents, like your recommendation letters.
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Scenario 3: Assign Recommenders Through Naviance / Family unit Connectedness
Many high schools use the higher eastward-docs software program Naviance. Your advisor controls one finish of Naviance from her account, and you control and access another office with yours (called Family Connection).
Naviance lets y'all search for colleges and keep runway of deadlines and submitted documents. At the aforementioned fourth dimension, your counselor can upload documents, like the secondary schoolhouse report and school transcript. Your Naviance account and all the documents it collects, including your recommendation letters, volition sync up to your Common Application and any other school applications that accept e-docs.
If you lot are using the Common Application, you'll need to "lucifer" your Mutual App and Naviance accounts. You'll enter the name of your high school on the Common App and sign the FERPA waiver. Once y'all've done this, your "Assign Recommenders" folio should look like this:
As you can see, you lot won't actually exist inviting your recommenders through the Common Application. Instead, y'all'll invite your recommenders directly through Naviance.
Since your Naviance account is directly continued to your loftier school, you can just select your teacher recommenders from a drop downwards list that has all the teachers in the school. You just choose the teacher and add a personal note, making sure to bespeak which colleges you lot want her to write messages for.
While this process makes information technology easier on you—you don't accept to collect your teachers' first and last names and e-mail addresses—it too has some limitations. Can you lot meet what they are?
Limitation of Naviance: Supplemental Recommendations
Instead of manually entering your teachers' contact info, every bit described above, Naviance asks you to select your teachers from a drop downward bill of fare. While this makes your teacher recommendations easy to request, information technology doesn't permit you to inquire anyone outside of your school's kinesthesia.
Some students wish to send supplemental recommendations, like from a private music instructor, coach, or supervisor. Others may have switched loftier schools and want to enquire a teacher from their previous school, or perhaps one who recently retired and has been removed from the drop down list of electric current faculty.
If any of these scenarios apply to you, so you'd have to invite your external recommender through your online application. If you lot discover yourself exceeding the number that your application allows, and then you could print out the evaluation form and have your recommender send her documents by mail. (Of class, exercise caution about sending too many actress letters!)
This process may audio a bit complicated, but once you lot sit down down at your computer, you'll actually find it to be pretty intuitive. You'll either assign recommenders through your online applications, or you'll choose them through Naviance.
Finally, you may accept some recommenders who have full-fledged technophobia and insist on sending their letters by mail. While not preferred by colleges, this method is really pretty like shooting fish in a barrel.
How to Submit Recommendations Through Mail
Despite rumors of a shutdown a few years ago, the mail function is withal going strong and available to deliver your orange envelopes to colleges. If your recommender wants to send a hard re-create, make sure to print out whatsoever ranking form that needs to accompany the evaluation letter.
So give your recommender a pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelope. Typically, these envelopes should exist sent to the schoolhouse's undergraduate admissions role. As with all your recommenders, brand sure this teacher knows your deadlines, and follow upward with her to check that she sent information technology in.
Don't worry if this package arrives before y'all submit your application. The college will offset a file on each applicant and collect any materials that arrive within that file before eventually sitting down to review it equally a complete application.
Since in that location are a few different options, let'south review the fundamental steps that you need to know for submitting your recommendation letters.
How to Assign Recommenders: An Overview
You may find yourself using a schoolhouse application and/or the Common Application to apply. Additionally, yous may also accept a Naviance account connected to your school.
Without Naviance, you lot only invite your recommenders directly through your online applications by providing their full names, positions, and email addresses. With Naviance, you'll need to sync up your applications and invite your recommenders through your Naviance account, manually indicating which colleges you want them to write letters for.
If y'all run into any technical difficulties through the process, make sure to speak to your advisor about troubleshooting. The most common place that students get stuck is the FERPA waiver. Until you lot've completed that stride, you can't move onto your recommendation requests.
Autonomously from inviting your recommenders, is there anything else you need to do in your quest for great evaluations?
What Else Exercise You Need to Exercise?
Too choosing your teacher recommenders advisedly, make certain to ask well in advance of deadlines—at to the lowest degree a month before, if non in the spring of your junior twelvemonth.
Send them a reminder email—mayhap masquerading as a thank you note—about a week before your deadlines, and sign into your application and/or Naviance accounts to brand sure they've uploaded their recommendations. Finally, brand sure to thank your recommenders for all their aid in getting into college!
What's Next?
At present that y'all know how to submit your recommendation letters, brand sure yous understand what separates the groovy messages from the forgettable ones. Check out this full guide on what makes a adept recommendation letter and what makes one not and so effective.
A lot of your colleges of interest might participate in the Common Awarding. Bank check this total list of Common App schools to see if yours allows this convenient selection.
For more than on the stride past stride process of applying to college, from choosing your high school classes to taking campus tours, have a look at this detailed guide.
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Rebecca graduated with her Master'southward in Adolescent Counseling from the Harvard Graduate Schoolhouse of Teaching. She has years of teaching and college counseling feel and is passionate nigh helping students accomplish their goals and improve their well-being. She graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University and scored in the 99th percentile on the Sat.
Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/how-do-i-submit-letters-of-recommendation
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